Archive for the 'Vnv Nation' Tag Under 'Soundcheck' Category

Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space, the sprawling 1997 masterpiece from Jason Pierce’s band Spiritualized, always did merit ranking among the very best from a watershed year in indie music history, a time of OK Computer and Urban Hymns, Portishead and Cornershop, The Colour and the Shape and Dig Me Out, the emergence of the Chemical Brothers and the dawn of Daft Punk.

But while Radiohead’s game-changer grabbed most of the attention, including plenty of misplaced “next Pink Floyd” talk, Pierce’s third (and still best) epic foray under his deceptively religious moniker, which deserved the Floyd comparison in the most complimentary way, has endured just as potently despite a slow come-around by American ears.

In the group’s native England, critics raved right away: Melody Maker, Q and the NME all ranked Floating in Space in their Top 3, the last one declaring it the best of ’97 over OK Computer. In the States, it barely cracked the Top 20 of the Village Voice’s Pazz & Jop poll and garnered as many shrugging reviews as glowing ones. Even Pitchfork, trusted arbiter about such sounds, has been slow to acknowledge its mad genius and overpowering impact: in 2003 the site’s writers considered it only the 55th greatest album of the ’90s, but three years ago a special-edition reissue was awarded a rare perfect-10 rating.

It’s only fitting, then, that the live revival of this opus has been slow to reach us. Pierce (seen above at Coachella earlier this year) and a different lineup played much of it on tour back in ’97, as captured on an official Royal Albert Hall set. Yet his most recent version of Spiritualized – including longtime guitarist John Coxon and drummer Kevin Bales – reportedly brought the material to more vivid life when they restaged it in London four years ago.

Rimes, the 27-year-old who has made more lately headlines for her rocky love life than for her music, will play the venue on Aug. 12, by which time perhaps she'll have a new album out. (She's due for one this year.)

The Top, co-fronted by guitarist Billy Gibbons (pictured, from their August bash at the Mouse House) also reportedly have a fresh one in the works for later this year as well — it'll be the Hall of Fame trio's first since the poorly received Mescalero seven years ago. Perhaps it, too, will be sitting in Best Buy racks by the time the group plays Pacific on Aug. 15.

Tickets — $19.50-$49.50 for Rimes, $39.50-$69.50 for ZZ Top — go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday. The box office at the OC Fair & Event Center, which will host its annual county fair alongside Pacific's run, will be open that day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., if you're looking to avoid some Ticketmaster fees.

FYI: I'll be more or less on post-Stagecoach hiatus starting ... well, now, really. There will still be occasional posts until I return on May 18, so keep checking back. But if days go by without updates, you'll know why.

Eagles of Death Metal, which dazzled in Anaheim last year opening for the Hives, will headline the Glass House in Pomona on June 6. Tickets, $15, go on sale at noon Friday. Also: Combichrist, Julien-K, June 16, $18, on sale at noon Saturday; Honor Society, May 17, $15, on sale now.